The present invention relates to protective equipment, and, more particularly, to protective headgear.
In the past, a wide variety of protective headgear has been devised for use by participants in a number of sports, such as football, hockey, and baseball, and for use as crash helmets to protect a wearer's head in the event of a collision. Such headgear has ranged from simple cloth or leather head coverings with minimal padding to hard outer shells supported upon a network of straps. More recently, as developing technology has made possible the more accurate measurement of forces actually transmitted to the wearer's head responsive to a blow directed against the protective headgear, significant improvements have been made with respect to the energy absorbing characteristics of such headgear.
Consistent with the current state of the art, one of the preferred designs of protective headgear features a relatively hard outer helmet shell in conjunction with flexible inner liners having a plurality of elongated fluid-filled members to support the helmet and dissipate forces applied thereto. More specifically, this current design generally utilizes one flexible air-filled inner liner positioned within a second similar inner liner and pad means positioned in openings formed by the elongated fluid-filled liner members. The pad means has been made of relatively firm material, such as a rubber and polyvinyl cloride foam composition, which is crushable upon impact. Laboratory testing has demonstrated that very little lateral dissipation of energy occurs directly behind the impact site upon the helmet shell with the previously used pad means. Further, the previously utilized pad means results in substantial wearer discomfort and must be replaced regularly due to the inability of the pad means to regain its energy absorbing qualities subsequent to repeated deformation.